Compiled by Raffaela Kenny-Cincotta, News Staff
As the Northeastern community begins a new semester this week, some Huskies, amid all the anxiety and excitement, are quick to forget the ups and downs of last semester. The News has compiled this list of stories as a look back at the fall.
In early September, the prestigious Millennium Campus Conference (MCC) was held in the Curry Student Center. The MCC is an event that stresses student action in order to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. The goals include ending poverty and hunger, ensuring universal education, combating HIV/AIDS, improving child and maternal health and promoting gender equality. Speakers at the conference included renowned individuals such as Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The Northeastern College of Business Administration received a historic $60 million donation from alumni Richard D’Amore and Alan McKim in September, too. McKim is known as the developer of Clean Harbors, a large hazardous waste disposal company in North America, and D’Amore is a highly successful venture capitalist. During the ceremonial naming of the new D’Amore-McKim School of Business, McKim described the influence of Northeastern’s defining “entrepreneurial spirit,” saying “I’m a product of this culture.” The ceremony was a formal thank you from the Northeastern community to the two benefactors and included the presentation of framed official certificates, medals and large ceremonial keys to the college.
In October, The Huntington News published a lengthy interview with current Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun, marking the first time reporters from the newspaper spoke on-the-record with Aoun at length in nearly two years. The 45-minute interview included many questions about student debt and tuition. When asked about the possibility of continued tuition increases at Northeastern, Aoun responded, “I anticipate that in higher education in general, there will be an increase … So what I focus on is not the rate of increase of tuition in absolute terms, but relative to financial aid going back to what you said.”
On Oct. 29, Northeastern lost a pivotal member of the university community. Former President Kenneth G. Ryder, who served between 1975 and 1989, passed away at the age of 88. During his time as president, Ryder ushered Northeastern into a time of great change, initiating plans for Snell Library. He is remembered for his work in the beautification of the Northeastern campus.
On Nov. 1, Rezwan Ferdaus, Northeastern Class of 2008, was sentenced in federal court to 17 years in prison for hatching a plan to fly small, explosive, remote-controlled airplanes into the US Capitol and Pentagon. Ferdaus also planned to personally shoot innocent workers fleeing the attacked buildings with automatic weapons, according to federal court documents.
Northeastern honored its service members past and present during a November ceremony at the Veterans Memorial on campus. The solemn event honored Northeastern veterans through the ages who had fought and lost their lives in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We will never forget the sacrifices made by your loved ones and the sacrifices made by men and women in uniform on a daily basis,” keynote speaker and US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. She also explained, “Each of these individuals is more than a name. They are a person who has served and given the ultimate sacrifice.”
Northeastern psychology professor James Scorzelli filed a discrimination complaint against the university after he was suspended from his position in the Bouve College of Health Sciences on Nov. 5. The suspension came after one of his students reported in a TRACE evaluation that he failed to report to the proper authorities after a patient confided in him about an incident of sexual abuse. Scorzelli denied the allegation, saying that the situation he posed to his students was hypothetical, and he merely intended to prompt a class discussion. At the time, Scorzelli firmly held the belief that Northeastern officials were using the poor evaluation as a way to force him into an early retirement. Scorzelli later wrote in an email to The News, “Although I would prefer [a large financial settlement], and do not want to return to NU, I may have to in order to regain my reputation.”
In late December, Northeastern officially filed the school’s Institutional Master Plan notification form with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The Institutional Master Plan is an outline of Northeastern campus initiatives and developments intended for the next decade. Major projects include the development of the Columbus Lot into a building complex for academic and research space, construction of a multi-use facility on the North Lot, located between Hemenway and St. Stephen streets, and additions to Matthews Arena and Ryder Hall.
